9/8/2021 Root Cause
What we have here is some delicious candied ginger root!! It's one of my favorite treats. I obtained about 2 lbs of ginger root from a local food bank, right at the start of our first triple digit heat wave this past summer. It was in a plastic grocery bag, and the gentleman handling produce offering it to me said, "Here do you want this? It's that..." he couldn't remember the name of it at first, and now I can't remember what he called it, but it was funny. Nor can I remember what I thought it was at first, but it wasn't until I got a look into the bag that I realized what it was: JACKPOT! I love ginger!!
Last winter, I got really into a ginger tea nightcap. Just boil some water while making dinner and pour it over some sliced ginger root pieces in my insulated travel mug. Close up the mug and by the time dinner is over and cleaned up, pajamas are on and teeth are brushed, it's perfect drinking temperature. Just cool enough that you can take mouthfuls, but still hot enough that it's hot without burning your tongue...ooh, it's so nice! But if you don't like ginger, you probably wouldn't like it, haha! Anyway, I like to hold the tea in my mouth and let it sit on my gums. After a few seconds, I get a tingly sensation that I liken to the "scrubbing bubbles" commercial characters for the product of the same name in the 90s. I don't worry too much about having already brushed my teeth. I'm sure there are sugars in the juices of the ginger root, but they are the naturally occurring variety and may even be beneficial--just speculating, but I would tend to believe that the supposed anti-inflammatory components outweigh the risks associated, if there even are any, of letting your teeth swim in naturally occurring sugars before bedtime. I might even consider brushing my teeth with ginger water instead of with commercial toothpaste! I believe in its health benefits that much!
Anywho--about the candied ginger. Like I said, I got the raw roots--about two pounds of them, I would guess--right at the beginning of a triple digit heat wave, so I wasn't too keen on sitting over a hot campstove to get these chopped and boiled and sugared...but at the same time, I have enough experience to know that letting raw ginger root sit around in hot hot humidity will lead you to having no more ginger root pretty quickly (thanks mold, sad face). So it languished for about a week before I chopped it. Most of it was old ginger root, as opposed to young ginger root, which means that it was more fibrous and difficult to chop, even with my freshly sharpened knife and because of the extreme temperatures, I broke up the chopping into a couple of afternoons as my arm was really getting a workout. I ended up sacrificing maybe 5 oz or less of the ginger root to mold--it was already on the verge when I got it, and coupled with my delay in processing it, it's just what happens. No big loss though, I got it for the low cost of riding my bike to go get it. I loosely followed a recipe that loosely followed David Liebovitz's candied ginger recipe, so if you want to look it up, there you have it. I guess he's a famous pastry chef? I first boiled the ginger root in plain water--Liebovitz wants you to dump out the water and put the roots through a second boiling...ain't nobody got enough water for that, so I just added sugar to the existing water and topped it off with some more water to have probably a pound of sugar (4 cups, I think?) and 4 cups of water and brought that to a boil with the ginger root in it. Then I let that simmer/boil for a good 45 minutes I think. Liebovitz says it's supposed to get soft and tender (I'm paraphrasing), but mine never got to the point where I would have called it soft or tender. Maybe that's because mine was mature root and more fibrous. Let that sit overnight, strain off the liquid (saving it, as it is a delicious ginger syrup which I put into my coffee and our oatmeal for over a month), then add yet more sugar to the still wet roots. Toss to coat, spread them out on a cutting board, and I covered them with a thin towel and set that in the sun for a day and at that point we had nice gummy sweet-spicy ginger treats, some more tough than others but delicious nonetheless, and fiber's good for you anyway, so there's that--helps offset the 12 tons of sugar I put in it. We enjoyed a few pieces as an after dinner aperitif several times over the next few weeks as well as an afternoon snack mixed with raw walnuts which added a nice earthy flavor and helped cut the spiciness. I think we got a little burned out since, two and a half months later, we still have a small handful of candied ginger root. I'm sure it will soon get tossed together with all our other small handfuls of nuts and fruits for a nice "leftovers trail mix." Comments are closed.
|
Archives
February 2024
CategoriesAll Eats Gear HSFRL Lifestyle Nugs Opinion Patterns Recipies Travel |